This invention relates, in general, to removal of hazardous chemicals, and more particularly to removing the remaining solvent liquid and solvent vapor from a solvent bottle to allow safe transport and disposal of an empty solvent bottle.
Semiconductor chip manufacturers use large quantities of solvents in the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices. For example, a large manufacturer could easily use 30,000 bottles of solvent per month. Each solvent bottle typically has 30 cc of liquid remaining after it has been used or emptied. At the volumes used in this example, the remaining fluid in each bottle would total approximately 900 liters of solvent.
Solvents are classified as hazardous waste and must be disposed of in an appropriate manner. Leaving solvent in each individual used container poses further problems. Not only must the solvent be disposed of, but each container is also considered hazardous material. The problem is further complicated when second or third parties are involved with the transportation and removal of hazardous waste due to environmental regulations.
Requirements for disposing of solvents based on the 1990 Clean Air Act are going into effect. One provision in the Clean Air Act is a technology driven law requiring users of hazardous waste materials to install the best technology available for handling these hazardous waste materials or installing a maximum achievable control technology for hazardous wastes. At this time there are no adequate means for handling solvent waste in the volumes it is currently used, which is cost effective, and meets standards set up by the 1990 Clean Air Act. It would be of great benefit if a system were developed which could purge used solvent bottles of solvent liquid and vapor within regulation guidelines. The system would allow the removal of solvent in much higher volumes and allow the environmentally clean solvent bottles to be disposed of in a normal fashion without being classified as a hazardous material.